wfn.org | WEISS TO RETIRE AS GEN SECY OF AMERICAN BAPTIST CHURCHES USA

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AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS SERVICE 
Office of Communication  
American Baptist Churches USA 
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851 
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320 
Web: www.abc-usa.org
Richard W. Schramm, Director 
 E-mail: richard.schramm@abc-usa.org

Weiss to Retire as General Secretary
of American Baptist Churches USA

 American Baptist Churches USA General Secretary Daniel 
E. Weiss has announced his intention to retire from that 
position Aug. 31, 2000.  
 Weiss, 62, has served as general secretary since 1988, 
and will complete his third four-year term in August.  As 
the highest-ranking executive of the 1.5-million-member 
American Baptist Churches USA, he oversees the work of 
staff, implements the policy decisions of the denomination's 
General Board, and coordinates the work of the four American 
Baptist national boards and 34 regional boards.  As chief 
executive officer he is responsible for taking executive and 
prophetic initiative to ensure an effective mission outreach 
for the denomination.
 Prior to his appointment as general secretary Weiss 
guided the work of the American Baptist Churches USA Board 
of Educational Ministries, one of four American Baptist 
national boards, as executive director from 1983-1988.
 He previously served simultaneously as president of 
two American Baptist-related schools, Eastern College in St. 
Davids, Pa., and Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 
Philadelphia, from 1973-1981.
 During the 1960s he held pastorates in Wisconsin, 
Michigan and Massachusetts.  In other academic and 
administrative responsibilities he has been a professor of 
ministry at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; visiting 
professor at the Latin American Biblical Seminary in San 
Jose, Costa Rica; vice president of Gordon College; and 
executive vice president of Pace University.
 Weiss holds the B.A. and M.A. degrees from Wheaton 
College, the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological 
Seminary and the Ph.D. degree from Michigan State 
University.  He also has been the recipient of a number of 
honorary degrees.
 In a letter sent last week to American Baptist 
Churches USA President Trinette V. McCray in which he 
announced his retirement, Weiss said, "This is a great 
denomination, a clear reflection of God's new humanity in 
Jesus Christ.  I am grateful for the opportunities given to 
me to be part of it.  I am so grateful to God and to 
American Baptists for the privilege of serving over these 
years."
 At retirement Weiss and his wife, Rachel, will be 
residing in homes in Florida and Massachusetts.

A Brief Overview of Mission and Emphases Thus Far During the 
Weiss Tenure   
 As he began his role of general secretary nearly 12 
years ago Weiss identified what he felt characterized "a 
denomination worthy of the Gospel."  That denomination, he 
said, "recognizes that it exists not as an end
in itself, but as an instrument through which the Gospel is 
advanced and proclaimed in all of its promise and wholeness 
[as] an inviting, evangelizing, growing 
denomination...motivated by its concern and compassion for 
people and by its love for Jesus Christ."
 During his tenure Weiss has emphasized a need for 
members and organizations within the denomination to 
understand, appreciate and live out the foundational 
understandings American Baptists long have espoused.
To that end he has lifted up the call to commitment to Jesus 
Christ as God's gift of salvation, and to evangelism and 
mission undertaken in His name; the affirmation of the local 
church as the fundamental unit of denominational mission; 
the need for unwavering support of religious and other 
freedoms; and the importance of understanding, respect and 
dialog within the diverse American Baptist family.
 Under Weiss's leadership American Baptist Churches USA 
has sought to both enable its churches and extend their 
witness.  He has stressed evangelism, new church planting 
and congregational renewal in the U.S. as well as support 
for overseas mission.  A number of significant endeavors 
have helped identify American Baptist mission in the closing 
years of the twentieth century.
 The mandate for renewal and revitalization within the 
denomination's 5,800 congregations has been a denominational 
emphasis throughout the 1990s.  "Renewed for Mission: ABC 
2000" was designed to stimulate each congregation to 
consider its unique gifts, needs and resources, and to think 
and act anew in living out its response to the Gospel.  The 
recently begun NEW LIFE 2010 emphasis has continued the call 
to renewal and growth through initiatives to encourage new 
believers, new churches and vital ministries. 
 The denomination's "Affirmation of Mission" in the 
mid-1990s emphatically rearticulated the long-cherished 
centrality of the local church within denominational life: 
"We believe that the local congregation is the fundamental 
unit of mission and our priority as a denomination is to 
affirm, support and challenge congregations as they live out 
their mission...empowered by the Holy Spirit to live as 
witnesses and agents of God's love and justice in the church 
and in the world; vital in worship; dynamic in proclamation; 
effective in teaching; loving in fellowship; faithful in 
stewardship; and compassionate in service."
 The national offices of American Baptist Churches USA 
in Valley Forge, Pa., officially were named the American 
Baptist Churches Mission Center in 1994 to emphasize that 
that building exists primarily as a resource for churches 
and not as a headquarters.
 The denomination's ongoing commitment to ecumenical 
ministry and inter-faith dialog has been a priority, and 
Weiss has actively participated and provided leadership in 
many related ecumenical bodies.  As president of the North 
American Baptist Fellowship, a longtime member of the World 
Council of Churches' Central Committee, and in numerous 
responsibilities within the National Council of Churches of 
Christ, the Baptist World Alliance, the Baptist Joint 
Committee on Public Affairs and other organizations he has 
articulated a distinctive American Baptist witness within 
those bodies.
 In 1989 he assisted the General Board in a process of 
reaffirmation of long-standing American Baptist 
relationships with the National Council of Churches of 
Christ and World Council of Churches, and in the board's 
desire to expand the denomination's ecumenical partnerships 
through the National Association of Evangelicals.  He also 
defended the work and mission of both councils following 
selective and subjective criticisms of them in several high-
profile media.
 A outspoken advocate for understanding, reconciliation 
and nonviolent resolution in conflict, Weiss has been a 
first-hand participant in efforts to negotiate peace during 
world crises, and has repeatedly addressed the myriad 
manifestations of injustice.   
 In 1989 and early 1990 he was among a group of church 
leaders who met personally with then Salvadoran President 
Alfredo Cristiani, in El Salvador and New York, to encourage 
protection for church workers during one of El Salvador's
most volatile periods.  He also was among those who met with 
then Secretary of State James Baker to urge that U.S. aid to 
that country be dependent upon appreciable improvements in 
its human rights policies.
 Weiss also was part of an interfaith delegation that 
went to the Middle East on the eve of the Persian Gulf War 
in 1990.  The group, meeting with high-ranking Iraqi 
officials and other area government representatives, urged 
the pursuit of peaceful solutions to the complex problems, 
encouraging both Iraqi and 
American leaders "not to submit to the inevitability of 
war."
 In addressing ongoing evidence of persecution and 
intolerance worldwide Weiss noted in 1997: "We have become 
painfully aware, through the Baptist World Alliance and 
other organizations, that religious intolerance is 
flourishing in many places....  We have first-hand reports 
from Baptists and other Christians that they are victims of 
discrimination by state churches or persecution by 
government agencies.  This cannot be tolerated.  It is 
important for American Baptists, who prize religious liberty 
as highly as any body of Christians, to speak out forcefully 
on this issue and to pray for understanding and 
reconciliation...."
 As American Baptists and others confronted racial 
hatred embodied in the series of church burnings in the mid-
1990s Weiss helped focus a faith-based response: "We need to 
take a renewed stand today and show in a multitude of ways 
that racism and hate will not be tolerated by those who 
follow Christ.... Racism is a sin, a theological heresy."
 He also has spoken out on hate crimes perpetrated on 
individuals, particularly in response to a rash of highly 
publicized incidents within the last few years: "Violence is 
the manifestation of cowardice and fear.  As a response to 
interpersonal relationships it is antithetical to everything 
the Gospel teaches us.   We who take seriously the Great 
Commission need to articulate that truth.  Our voices need 
to be heard.  If we don't pursue understanding ourselves, 
and call others to the same standard, we're failing to be 
effective disciples."
 Within the American Baptist family Weiss has 
encouraged an extra measure of understanding among members 
representing a diversity of theological and other 
understandings.  When the Commission on Denominational Unity 
prepared to deliver its report to the General Board in 
November 1997 he said: "There will be disagreements about 
some of their recommendations.  Can we discuss the 
recommendations...without jeopardizing our unity?  Their 
work is important particularly in their suggestions as to 
how subsequent divisive issues could be handled by us.  We 
will always have differences.  They are a necessary 
consequence of the very thing that is at the heart of being 
a Baptist--freedom!"
 He had earlier expressed a call to live out a 
particular tenet of Baptist tradition: "American Baptists 
shouldn't be afraid to discuss anything; they have 
obligations to have deeply held convictions.  They need to 
agree to disagree...to allow American Baptist sisters and 
brothers to be wrong."   At the apex of "the hierarchy of 
Christian values," he maintained, "is a commitment to Jesus 
Christ as Lord and Savior.  The source of our unity should 
be that, not ideological agreement or conformity."
 During the difficult and painful process leading up to 
and following the dismissal of five churches from two 
American Baptist regions, and the ensuing consideration of 
their status within the denomination at large, Weiss has 
called for that same spirit of dialog and respect.  "People 
have been hurt on both sides" of the issue, he told General 
Board members this past June. "There's nothing to celebrate 
here--no matter how you voted," Weiss said, noting the need 
for "deep prayer, reconciliation and healing."  American 
Baptists need to answer some basic questions, he charged: 
"What is our polity?  Does autonomy cease to exist?  Can we 
always know the clear meaning of Scripture?"
 As the denomination increasingly became more racially 
and culturally diverse in the 1990s Weiss pointed to the 
need for American Baptists to set an example of cooperation 
and unity:  "Racial reconciliation is a particular 
responsibility of Baptists.  The unique leadership role we 
could play is not only due to our large proportion of the 
population but, more significantly, due to the fact that the 
Baptists of the United States are almost equally divided 
between people of color and Caucasians." 
 Weiss has placed special importance on successfully 
disseminating American Baptist mission, news and resources 
through existing and emerging forms of communication.  Under 
his leadership American Baptists In Mission, the successor 
publication to The American Baptist, was launched, and the 
denomination introduced a wide range of computer-based 
media, including the ABC/USA Website and its first editions 
of a CD-ROM multimedia magazine.
 Stewardship also has been a prominent priority for 
Weiss, who has spoken out in support of tithing,  
proportional giving and other emphases that have been 
affirmed by the denomination to meet the increasing 
challenges related to fundraising and mission giving.
 In his report this past June to Biennial Meeting 
attendees in Des Moines Weiss said: "We as a denomination 
are faced with two mutually exclusive alternatives: to turn 
to Jesus or to turn on each other.  If we truly turn to 
Jesus, it will so preoccupy us that we will have little 
inclination or opportunity to turn on each other."  In 
considering the future of American Baptist Churches USA, he 
said,  "As we stand poised on the brink of a new century and 
a new millennium...the future for us can be bright, beyond our 
imaginations.... 
 "If we can experience personal and corporate renewal 
through the Holy Spirit, can become a diverse community 
united in Jesus Christ, can be open to the new vision of 
mission God has for us, and can be cheerful stewards of the 
resources entrusted to us, the decades ahead will be replete 
with opportunities for powerful and effective service for 
Christ by American Baptists.
 "Our future as American Baptists can be bright if we 
meet these conditions.   Does God expect any less of us?...
 "Jesus Christ longs for the wholeness of His body.  I 
believe that if we can truly turn to Jesus and relate to 
each other with humility, charity, fidelity and unity, we 
can relate to a needy, desperate world as a people meeting 
God's conditions for a bright future."

NOTE: This is the first in a series of releases and features 
on the retirement and tenure of Daniel E. Weiss.  Later 
releases will offer reflections by professional and lay 
denominational leaders on accomplishments within American 
Baptist life during the last 12 years, as well as an 
extensive assessment of that period by Dr. Weiss himself.

1/18/00
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